Central Jack Points for Lifting Vehicle
Published by zzzbullseye
12-04-2010

Central Lift / Jacking Points

I swapped out my summer wheel/tire combo for my winter setup today, and since I've seen several questions from folks about where the correct jack points are for lifting your vehicle, I thought I'd snap a few photos and share. These photos are from my 2009 E90 335i, but all models of E90-E93 should be very similar in layout.

First off, BMW has supplied jack stand mounting points on the underneath side of the vehicle just behind the front tires and just in front of the rear tires. This is where you should place your jack stands once the vehicle is lifted. These points can also be used to lift the vehicle one corner at a time. Jack stand mounting point illustration:

Front Lift Point

Front lift point as observed from underneath the center of the front bumper:

The same location as observed from just in front of the left front tire:

A closer view:

A closeup of the lift point:

A look at the lift point with the protective plastic removed. (Thanks to e90post member ENINTY for this pic ):

Jack placement on front lift point. With my sport suspension, I had to drive all four tires onto 2x4s to gain enough clearance to be able to fit the jack under the vehicle...even with this, I still had to make tiny little incremental movements with the jack handle in the beginning. Once you achieve a little lift on the vehicle you'll get more clearance for the jack handle, and then you're all set.

Rear Lift Point

The rear lift point is located on the central cross support just behind the differential. Here's the rear lift point as observed from underneath the center of the rear bumper:

I've got a question on the rear lift point.
My 335d has a 'strut' running between the two exhaust pipes directly below the rear lifting point (i forgot to snap a photo on the weekend). There is no way for me to get my jack to this lift point. Is there another rear lifting point so that I can jack the rear and change both tires at the same time??

If this is the only 'designed' rear lift point, then it is pretty poor engineering by BMW.